Next week I’ll be attending, once again, Storage Field Day. This is my 5th attendance in a row but I can’t say no to Stephen and his team. SFD is one of the most interesting events in the storage industry and for me it is always a pleasure being part of the group of independent bloggers (here the list of delegates, with comments from Arjan Timmerman) who are there to get the news directly from the horse’s mouth and to discuss the latest technologies!
The event is always broadcasted live, and you’ll find a box with the live stream video here on Juku.it too (at the top of the right hand column).
This edition will see 9 great sponsors, some new ones (out of stealth a few days ago) and the others who are well known to the public, but most likely with boatloads of news… My expectations are very high.
The presenters
Catalogic: This is one of the new kids on the block when it comes to next-generation data management solutions. Their idea is to start from a copy of your data (a backup?) and carve out tons of value from it. The potential of this kind of solution is huge, I can’t wait to dig deeper into Catalogic.
Cloudian: I love object storage! And last year I had various opportunities to meet with them. Their solution is really interesting and they have already proven that object storage can be viable for any kind of organization. This is their first SFD appearance and I’m sure they’ll have something to say.
EMC: I don’t actually know what to expect. They are becoming regulars at this event. XtremIO, ViPR, were well shown in past SFD editions… what’s up next? ScaleIO? one of the new acquired cloud startups? I don’t know, we will see.
Exablox: I love these guys. Scale-out NAS with an object storage backend for the SMB. They’ve already presented at SFD3 and I met with them again last December… I’m sure they will have a lot of new stuff to show.
Kaminario: an All-Flash storage startup with a very cool product. I’ve liked their tech since the beginning but they’ve never pushed hard on the marketing/sales side. Now, after the latest funding round, I’m sure we will hear about them much more often then in the past. SFD will give us the opportunity to get an update about both their product and strategy!
Maxta: Clearly a startup to track very closely. Not just because of the market segment where they are positioned (VSA/Hyperconverge), but also because this could be a good option to build a hyper converged system. Their ability to use internal and external storage resources at the same time/simultaneously could be a great advantage in heterogenous environments.
Primary data: I wrote about them a few months ago. Their ideas are exciting, to say the least. Now, after 4 months from the first meeting I had with them, I want to know all about the developments!
Springpath: Just out of stealth, this is a new hyper-converged player which promises to build next generation storage infrastructures capable of serving different workloads on separate virtualization technologies (VMs, containers, bare metal) at the same time. No doubt_ they’ve aroused my curiosity!
The SFD7 page also reports about a “secret company”, but I have no clue about it at the moment… and you’ll have to wait as well.
Closing the circle
All the info you need to virtually attend are on the Tech Field Day web site and live video streams will be available here too.
Not much more to add except for… stay tuned and join us! You can watch the video and interact via Twitter with the #SFD7 hashtag, it will be fun!
One last thing
TECH.unplugged will be taking place in London (UK) on April 22. This is a new event where users and bloggers can talk about new technologies and the future of enterprise IT. Take a look at the website, and join us for what is going to be a great opportunity to share experiences and opinions about the latest technologies and their adoption in Enterprise IT. The event is free for end users but the number of seats is limited!
Disclaimer: I was invited to this meeting by GestaltIT and they paid for travel and accommodation, I have not been compensated for my time and am not obliged to blog. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or edited by any other person than the Juku team.
